


Understanding

by loki_scribe



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-05
Updated: 2010-09-05
Packaged: 2017-10-11 11:58:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/112169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loki_scribe/pseuds/loki_scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were both <i>trying</i> to understand each other, and Angua knew it. (featuring feral human!Gavin)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "give and take" on comment_fic.

Carrot was impossible.

No, that wasn't quite it, and Angua knew that was unfair. What Carrot was was very, very human. He was direct and honest and friendly, at least to dwarves and trolls and humans. Animals, on the other hand, read his tendency to look the people he spoke to directly in the eye as aggression.

There were days when the moon was swelling on the horizon that _her_ hackles stood on end when he smiled at her with teeth, and she understood human interaction. The wolf didn't always like it, but Angua was in control of the wolf and dealt with it accordingly. And Carrot, being Carrot, accepted the days when she snapped and talked to his ear even when he didn't understand it.

Gavin didn't get human interaction. He walked on two legs at least some of the time and had a decent vocabulary if you could understand him, between the broken grammar and the low growl he always spoke in, but the nuances of human body language were lost on him, and he defaulted to those of a wolf. Angua had already had to explain several times that Carrot had to be told "stop" in human words and that the noise Gavin was currently making was him growling because Carrot was making him uncomfortable.

So Carrot was _trying_, but his insistence on trying to treat Gavin like another one of the lads was just doomed to spectacular failure.

Just now, Gavin was cagier than usual, since they were inside the Morporkian embassy, something that required that he be upright and wearing clothes and in full command of his human vocabulary since Angua was the only one around who would pick up on his animal cues. He'd been lurking in the back of the room, leaning against a pale patch of wall that suggested something had been hung there until recently, and watching Carrot and Mister Vimes with interest. It had probably never occurred to him that Carrot was not, technically speaking, in charge of his pack.

"Angua?" Gavin rasped. His voice sounded very small and echoey in the room.

She came up beside him. He reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair back over her shoulder before trying to pull her a little bit closer. She let herself. Gavin was more wolf than human. She wasn't surprised that in Carrot's four-walled world, he wanted to rub up against her. Angua was as much part of his world as she was this one, familiar, and sort of his.

"Shh," she mumbled, because it was understandable to the people around them and sort of similar to the huffing sound wolves made to one another.

Gavin just whimpered and pulled her closer.

Angua sighed. Carrot and Gavin were never supposed to _meet._ They were like the princes of two different stories, the long lost king of the city and the wood's god, and the roles didn't mix. Gavin was too proud, and Carrot too all-consuming. Carrot wanted to get along and be friendly, and Gavin wanted to draw a territorial line between them so they wouldn't fight.

Then Carrot nodded to Vimes and started in their direction.

Gavin nudged Angua slightly so that she moved away and straightened, standing alone. He wasn't nearly as big as Carrot, but he clearly felt he had something to prove anyway. Angua barely suppressed a sigh -- human or animal, men were men.

Carrot stopped a few feet away from him and met his gaze, smiling slightly and waiting for him to say something. At least he wasn't showing teeth, although Angua still tensed. _Back down, Carrot, please,_ she thought. _He won't._

After a few moments she could hear her heart pounding in her ears, because all she could do was hope that this didn't lead to blood, Carrot yielded without realizing it. His gaze slid over to Angua. "Mister Vimes says that the werewolves are at the heart of it," he said, voice apologetic. "Especially your brother Wolfgang."

Gavin growled at Wolfgang's name. He _really_ didn't like Wolfgang's hunting habits, but he'd always been smart enough not to face the psychopath alone. He glanced out the window at the snowfields, then back at Carrot, and then his eyes flicked over to Vimes. He reached out and touched Angua's arm. "Ask . . . borrow Carrot?" he said.

Angua shook her head. "He makes his own decisions."

Gavin stared at her for a moment, and then apparently decided it was some mystifying people thing. He nodded, one of the few human gestures he used, and nudged Carrot's arm for his attention. "Help?" he asked.

"What do you need help with?"

"No. Help Carrot. Wolfgang. I lead."

Carrot blinked, and for a moment Angua was afraid she was going to have to break in. "You mean you think you can help us arrest him?"

Gavin titled his head slightly in puppy confusion. "Ar-rest?" It was not a word he would have encountered in Uberwald.

"Stop," Angua supplied.

Gavin nodded. "With help. I lead."

Carrot nodded. "You do know the area best."


End file.
